Optimization & Ongoing
What Stops Working After the System Goes Live
A fractional COO for law firms is a part-time operations leader who owns the firm's systems, workflows, and reporting on a monthly basis, without the firm hiring a full-time executive.
Implementation ends. The work the system was built to carry does not. Six months later the exceptions have piled up, the reporting has drifted from what anybody actually decides on, and the person who knew how it all fitted together has moved on.
This is the fourth step of the engagement, and the only one that recurs. A monthly strategy call, a dashboard review, up to two automation builds or updates, and advisory access between calls, on a three-month minimum.
What decays, and how fast
None of this is dramatic. Nothing goes down, nobody raises an alarm, and the firm keeps running. That is precisely what makes it expensive: the decline is invisible until the cost of it is not.
Every matter that did not fit got handled manually, just this once
Nobody wrote down why. A year later the exception is the process, and the workflow on the screen describes a firm that no longer exists.
The dashboard still renders. It stopped matching how you decide
What it measures was right at launch. The questions the firm actually asks moved about four quarters ago, and nobody re-pointed the report at them.
An automation stops firing and nothing raises a hand
No error, no alert, no bounced email. Work quietly routes to nobody until somebody notices a gap weeks later, usually because a client asks.
The person who understood the build left
The system was documented in their head. It is now undocumented by default, and the next person inherits something they can operate but not change.
These are patterns SourcePro sees repeatedly in firms six to eighteen months after a system goes live. They are operating observations, not survey findings.
Fractional COO services, and what the role actually owns
Most firms do not decide to hire operations leadership. They arrive at it, usually after a stretch where the managing partner is the only person who knows how anything works.
What it owns
- Who owns each process, and what happens when one of them breaks.
- Whether the firm can take on more work without something quietly failing.
- Whether the numbers are trusted enough that somebody acts on them.
- How a new hire becomes productive without shadowing someone for a month.
What it is not
- Not a helpdesk. There is no queue to raise a ticket in.
- Not a staffing placement. Nobody is seconded into your team.
- Not a full-time executive at a discount. It is a defined monthly scope.
- Not unlimited access. The scope below is the scope.
Teila Garraway holds this role for every firm on a retainer. Fifteen years in legal operations, and the same person on the call each month rather than whoever is free. Accountability is the product, so it has a name attached. More on the team behind it.
What a month actually looks like
A strategy call
Thirty to sixty minutes. What changed, what is straining, what to do about it before it becomes a failure.
A dashboard review
Reading what the numbers say, and checking they still measure the thing the firm is actually deciding about.
Up to two automation builds or updates
Each up to ten steps. Anything larger is quoted separately or rolls into the following month, so the ceiling stays real.
Advisory access between calls
The questions that come up mid-month, answered by someone who already knows how your systems are put together.
Pricing, by firm size
The engagement is the same at every size. What changes is the number of people, matters and systems it has to hold, so the price follows attorney count rather than a longer feature list.
- 1–2 attorneys
- $1,000/month
- 3–7 attorneys
- $1,500/month
- 8–15 attorneys
- $2,500/month
Three-month minimum, then month to month with 30 days' written notice.
Prepay six months for 5% off the monthly rate, or twelve months for 10%.
All tiers include fractional COO and CTO guidance.
When you do not need this
- Your systems were built well and somebody inside the firm already owns them, with the time to do it.
- Nothing has been implemented yet. A retainer maintains a system, it does not build one — start with the Health Check.
- You want someone to run the day-to-day: manage the inbox, chase the leads, work the queue. That is a hire, not this.
How this fits the rest of the engagement
- 1Health CheckFree, 60 minutes
- 2DiagnosticFindings and a path
- 3ImplementationThe system gets built
- 4Optimization & OngoingMonthly, from here
Most firms reach this step after an implementation. Case management and CRM and intake are the two most common, and the case studies show what gets built before this step begins.
Frequently asked questions
Start with the diagnosis, not the retainer
The Legal Systems Health Check is free and takes an hour. We look at what was built, what has drifted since, and whether ongoing support is actually what your firm needs. If it is not, that is what you will be told.